I am both alive and totally sane because I was voted out of the torture/interrogation that the party took part in. Jokes on you guys for being so bloodthirsty :D

Simberto

Germany11886 Posts

October 13 2013 18:05 GMT

#365

Next week once again Sunday, 16:00CEST

CrazyF1r3f0x

United States2120 Posts

October 13 2013 19:06 GMT

#366

YUS

HystericaLaughter

Australia720 Posts

October 14 2013 03:33 GMT

#367

Summary of this week:

James Morrison heroically fights the snake/lizard/bat creature in order to buy the rest of the party enough time to escape, giving up his life in the process. Also, Janette O'Neil realises that dual-wielding battle axes with no training is not a good idea. Or rather, she doesn't realise that.

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United Kingdom3341 Posts

October 14 2013 09:12 GMT

#368

Hey, it wouldn't be nearly as fun if she did realise it. 8D Also I figured we'd get wiped anyway, so might as well have some fun.^_^

Simberto

Germany11886 Posts

October 14 2013 14:13 GMT

#369

Btw, i am always open for feedback. If there is something you really liked, something you would prefer if it were handled differently, or something you really didn't like please tell me (instead of vanishing without ever being seen again)

One thing i am trying to improve upon are my descriptions of things. I find it really hard to provide the correct moody descriptions of the foggy countryside or scary monsters, probably mostly because i am not a writer by trade and because my vocabulary is limited compared to that of a native english speaker.

HystericaLaughter

Australia720 Posts

October 15 2013 08:13 GMT

#370

Don't worry Sim, I'll help. Send me a pm detailing all the monsters we'll run into and I'll send you back an in-depth description for each of them in english

Simberto

Germany11886 Posts

October 15 2013 08:53 GMT

#371

Oh yes, that is a very good idea, i'll start writing the PM right away.

Edit: Wwwwaaaitt a minute........

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United Kingdom3341 Posts

October 15 2013 12:12 GMT

#372

Ah, if you give us an open invitation, I guess I'll write down some thoughts about last Sunday's encounter. Please don't take this too harshly, I still had a good time playing that day, it was just that it left the lingering feeling of not actually being very enjoyable for the first 90 minutes.
Now I realise that we aren't playing DnD and encounters aren't necessarily supposed to be "fair"/adjusted to the parties strength. But the giant worm bat thing that just came and basically wiped us (realistically it would have anihilated us if it didn't mysteriously fly off, which by the way, at least for me really hurt the flavour part of the encounter for me. If you want to show off the grueling magics that our opposition is capable off, and for some reason you think that they are best demonstrated on the party, just kill them all, maybe have someone barely get away to tell a new group, but don't show mercy halfway through the encounter and only kill 1 guy 8D.) just felt really unfair in the sense that we could not do anything about it.
Not in the sense of us not being able to beat it, but rather in the way that there wasn't any way to play around it at all. It just showed up at our place, to which I guess it might not have been smart to return to after catching one of their spies, but on the other hand, if they wanted to wipe us out with a monster like that, they could have done so no matter what.
Also, once the encounter started there wasn't any way to play around the thing and outsmart it (not that our tactic of having one guy be someplace else entirely and another guy just jumping out a window and incapacitating himself would have left us with any chance of winning anyway ^_^). But my irk with that might also just stem from being used to playing PnP games in which you can actually win fights.
Ah well, to sum up that horrible stream of consciousness, also, sorry for the terrible formating, I'm writing this hungover during a lecture: Giant monster that just murders the party without any chance to do anything about it = boring, not scary in my opinion. Doesn't exactly make for fun gameplay.

But then, if we had a giant stash of granades, everything would be more exciting. 8D

Simberto

Germany11886 Posts

October 15 2013 13:23 GMT

#373

I hate not being able to tell you a lot about this. I will go into more detail once you leave London. For now i can say that there was a reason the thing appeared when it did, and there was a reason it left when it did (This does not always need to be the case either, entities of the Mythos are not human, and their motivations are often not directly obvious. In this case it was, but sadly i can't give you more details while you are in London.)

The way i run this game is not that much based on encounters, but on people. I try to see what specific peoples and entities motivations are what they are aware off, and what their capabilities are. Some of them are also flawed characters, so not everything they do is necessarily the tactically optimal thing. Your group of investigators is not necessarily very high on their list of priorities, or they are not even aware of you at all. Sometimes killing you isn't the main goal of an attack either.

As a very general rule of thumb, if you fight against humans you have a fight you can win. Most humans are about as squishy as you are in a direct fight, though evil sorcerers might be able to summon unspeakable magics if they get a bit of free time. There is always a way to do something, and even if not, dying valiantly in a useless effort to hold back the tides of evil for just one more year can also be fun.

If the general consensus of the group is that you would rather want winnable encounters, i can of course do that, but in my opinion that rips out the soul of CoC.

If you fight against things, you probably should have avoided to get into that situation, and your main goal should be survival. Which usually means running away really fast. I'd say you actually handled the thing pretty well, considering three of you got out of there alive, which for an open encounter with a mythos creature isn't that bad. And that was not me being merciful, as i said there was a reason that thing left which i will gladly disclose as soon as you leave London.

Though i must confess, i thought a while there between that thing and 8-12 crazed cultists, and i thought you deserve a bit of Mythos from time to time. Plus i was pretty sure that at least some of you would survive this and fathomed your chances with the crazies a bit lower.

HystericaLaughter

Australia720 Posts

October 15 2013 13:31 GMT

#374

And whyyyy did three of us get out alive? Oh thats right, heroic sacrifice.

My only criticism is you threw a monster that was guaranteed to kill at least one person, or likely multiple people, at us straight away. Like 15 minutes into the session. That left me scrambling to make a character so I could actually participate for the last couple of hours. And yes, we did leave the last session on a bit of a cliffhanger, but this session could have very easily turned into Ivan wandering around confused about his friends disappearing, while four people made new characters. Not very exciting.

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United Kingdom3341 Posts

October 15 2013 14:00 GMT

#375

Ehh, the Cthulhu things are cool and all. Sorry for not communicating my point adequately. I don't so much dislike dying, hey I wouldn't charge into battle dual wielding axes if I cared a terrible lot about my character getting killed. It's just that I personally dislike encounters that have no chance of even being turned into some sort of minor victory, even if it's just getting out alive. But that's probably just me not playing CoC that much, haha.
As I said I have a few suspicions what's actually happening right now. although your post does confuse me some.

Also, getting lolstunned for 3/4 of the combat by failing a roll seems like a bit of a weird mechanic.

Simberto

Germany11886 Posts

October 15 2013 14:11 GMT

#376

You guys are always free to discuss your ideas about what is happening, i am just this cryptic because there is little fun to be had for anyone if i tell you what is going on. If i were a player, keeping my ideas to myself would be about the last thing i'd do.

And dismiss, i think the main problem here is that you think i saved you through keeper mercy. I didn't, and i will never do that. If you die, you die, and if you live, you live because it makes sense, not because i want to save your characters. As a result this means that you survived the encounter in the O'Neill mansion because of things you did, even though you might not realize this.

Simberto

Germany11886 Posts

October 20 2013 19:28 GMT

#377

Next playing time will be on Sunday, 27th.

One complication: We will change to wintertime on this sunday at 3:00 AM. Apparently others don't, for example the americans change on Nov 3rd. So i'd say we go with 16:00 CET, which is one hour later for our non-european players. Or would you prefer 15:00 CET?

Regarding game stuff:

There are some characters readily available if you want to play them. Sadly this is highly dependent on whether the remaining three guys in the house survive or not. If they do, people who are there or close to there would be good characters so you don't have to afk listen for the first 3 hours of our gaming session.

These would be:

Jimmy the Ear (Safecracker)
Brookwood the Smuggler (or one of his shipmates)
Yaleesha the Bellydancer (HystericaLaughter wants to play her i think)
And i can conveniently bring in pretty much any not-so-high profile female character living in London.

If they don't survive, it doesn't really matter and you could get the second wave following up on crazy letters, George Andersons crazy half-written book, the letter left at Mrs. O'Neills notary or anyone else you can find a way to fit in.

CrazyF1r3f0x

United States2120 Posts

October 20 2013 22:45 GMT

#378

If 16:00 CET = 7:00 PDT then I'm in